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Unit 5 Divide and Conquer Part 3

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Romel Raphael Nofuente
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8 views2 pages

Unit 5 Divide and Conquer Part 3

Uploaded by

Romel Raphael Nofuente
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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In divide and conquer approach, the problem in hand, is divided into smaller sub-

problems and then each problem is solved independently. When we keep on dividing
the subproblems into even smaller sub-problems, we may eventually reach a stage
where no more division is possible. Those "atomic" smallest possible sub-problem
(fractions) are solved. The solution of all sub-problems is finally merged in order to
obtain the solution of an original problem.

Broadly, we can understand divide-and-conquer approach in a three-step process.

Divide/Break
This step involves breaking the problem into smaller sub-problems. Sub-problems
should represent a part of the original problem. This step generally takes a recursive
approach to divide the problem until no sub-problem is further divisible. At this stage,
sub-problems become atomic in nature but still represent some part of the actual
problem.

Conquer/Solve
This step receives a lot of smaller sub-problems to be solved. Generally, at this level,
the problems are considered 'solved' on their own.

Merge/Combine
When the smaller sub-problems are solved, this stage recursively combines them until
they formulate a solution of the original problem. This algorithmic approach works
recursively and conquer & merge steps works so close that they appear as one.
Examples
The following computer algorithms are based on divide-and-conquer programming
approach −

 Merge Sort
 Quick Sort
 Binary Search
 Strassen's Matrix Multiplication
 Closest pair (points)
There are various ways available to solve any computer problem, but the mentioned
are a good example of divide and conquer approach.

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